AN 

ADDRESS, 


PRONOUNCED  AT  THE  OPENING 

OP 

THE  NEW- YORK  ATHENiEUM, 

DECEMBER  14,  1824. 


BY  fiENRY  WHEATON. 


SECOND  EDITION. 


Ji*fo=porfe: 

J.  W.  PALMER  AND  CO.  PRINTERS  TO  THE  ATHENiEUM. 

1825*. 


Ex  Htbrta 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  book 

Because  it  has  been  said 
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OLD   YORK    LIBRARY  -  OLD   YORK  FOUNDATION 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 

(in  i  01  Si  vmoi  r  B.  Dl'RSl  Oi  i)  Y( >RK  LffiR  SRS 


At  a  Meeting  of  the  Associates  and  Members  of  the  Athenetum, 
held  at  the  City  Hotel  on  the  13th  December,  1824,  an  Introduc- 
tory Address  was  delivered  by  Henry  Wheaton,  Esq.  Upon  mo- 
tion of  Dr.  David  Hosack,  seconded  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wain- 
wright — it  was 

Unanimously  resolved,  That  a  Committee  be  appointed  to  wait 
upon  Henry  Wheaton,  Esq.,  to  express  to  him  the  sense  of  this 
Meeting,  in  relation  to  the  appropriate  and  eloquent  Address 
delivered  by  him  this  day,  and  to  solicit  a  copy  of  the  same  for 
publication :  Whereupon,  the  following  Gentlemen  were  appointed 
a  Committee : 

Dr.  DAVID  HOSACK, 
Rev.  Dr  WAIN  WRIGHT, 
WILLIAM  GRACIE,  Esq., 
Rev.  Mr.  SCHR(EDER, 
Rev.  Dr.  MATHEWS, 

New-  York,  December  13th,  1824. 
It  is  with  unfeigned  gratification  that  the  undersigned  members 
of  the  Committee,  appointed  by  the  Athenaeum,  perform  the  duty 
assigned  them  in  soliciting  for  publication  a  copy  of  the  able  and 
classical  Address  delivered  by  you  this  day.    In  so  doing,  we  cordi- 
ally concur  in  the  expression  of  the  unanimous  approbation  of  the 
Associates  and  Members  of  that  Institution,  and  of  the  numerous 
and  enlightened  audience  before  whom  it  was  delivered. 
We  are,  Sir,  with  sentiments  of  great  respect, 
DAVID  HOSACK, 
JONA  M.  WAIN  WRIGHT, 
WILLIAM  GRACIE, 
J.  F  SCHRCEDER, 
J.  M.  MATHEWS. 
To  HENRY  WHEATON,  Esq. 


Avtfcf 


At  a  Meeting  of  the  Proprietors  of  the  Liverpool  Royal  Institu- 
tion, held  the  1st  February,  1823,  B.  A.  Haywood,  Esq.  President 
in  the  chair,  it  was  proposed  by  Mr.  William  Rathbone,  seconded 
by  Mr.  Thomas  Longton,  and  carried  unanimously, 
That  the  members  of  this  Institution  offer  their  respectful  congratu- 
lations to  the  Committee  of  the  Athenaeum  of  New-York,  on  the  suc- 
cess of  its  exertions,  and  that  they  add  their  best  wishes  for  the  fu- 
ture progress  of  that  establishment,  and  express  their  hopes  that  the 
two  Institutions  may  mutually  aid  each  other  in  promoting  their  respec- 
tive important  objects. 

That  any  member  of  the  Committee  of  the  New-York  Athenaeum 
who  may  visit  Liverpool,  shall  have  the  privilege  of  admission  during  his 
stay  : 

And  that  the  President  be  requested  to  communicate  these  resolu- 
tions to  the  Committee  of  the  New- York  Athenaeum,  and  to  accompa- 
ny them  with  a  copy  of  the  several  printed  Addresses  which  have  been 
delivered  to  the  proprietors  of  this  Institution. 

It  was  upon  the  motion  of  William  Roscoe,  Esq.  seconded  by  Dr. 
Traill, 

Unanimously  Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Proprietors  be  given 
to  the  President  for  the  Address  he  has  delivered,  and  that  he  be  re- 
quested to  favour  the  Institution  with  a  copy  for  publication. 

THOMAS  MORTIN,  Secretary. 


At  a  Meeting  of  the  Associates  of  the  New- York  Athenaeum,  held  in 
the  City  Hall,  the  Reverend  Dr.  Harris,  President,  in  the  chair,  the 
following  resolutions  were  proposed  by  the  Reverend  Dr.  Wain- 
wright,  seconded  by  Mr.  William  Gracie,  and  carried  unanimously. 

Resolved, 

1.  That  the  Associates  of  the  New-York  Athenaeum,  have  receiv- 
ed much  satisfaction  from  the  resolutions  communicated  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Liverpool  Royal  Institution,  and  do  cordially  reciprocate 
the  good  wishes  expressed  therein,  and  unite  in  "  the  hope  that  the  two 
Institutions  may  mutually  aid  each  other  in  promoting  their  respective 
important  objects." 

2.  That  the  members  of  the  Institution  when  visiting  New- York,  be 
admitted  to  all  the  privileges  of  the  Athenaeum. 

3.  That  the  President  transmit  the  above  resolutions  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Liverpool  Royal  Institution,  together  with  such  printed 
Addresses  and  Documents  as  he  may  deem  to  be  of  general  interest. 

By  order,  F.  G.  KING,  Recording  Sec'ry. 


ADDRESS 


An  association  of  literary  and  scientific 
men,  actuated  by  a  disinterested  zeal  for 
diffusing  the  lights  of  knowledge,  and  for 
promoting  the  cultivation  of  literature  in 
our  common  country,  would  invite  public 
patronage  to  their  undertaking. 

I  am  called  upon  to  address  you  in  their 
behalf :  and  I  cannot  perhaps  better  dis- 
charge the  duty,  than  by  taking  a  general 
retrospect  of  what  the  American  mind  has 
hitherto  accomplished ;  and  endeavouring 
to  present  you  with  some  prospective  views 
of  what  may  be  achieved  hereafter  by  the 
intellectual  genius  of  our  countrymen. 
2 


8 

In  taking  this  review  of  the  past,  and 
hazarding  these  anticipations  of  the  future, 
we  will  be  careful  not  to  indulge  in  exag- 
gerated estimates  of  what  we  have  already 
performed.  Neither  our  colonial  condition, 
nor  the  civil  war  which  made  us  a  nation, 
could  be  considered  as  propitious  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  liberal  arts,  of  science, 
and  of  letters.  We  had  great  and  peculiar 
difficulties  to  surmount ; — a  wilderness  to 
subdue — our  physical  wants  to  provide  for 
— our  personal  and  public  rights  to  secure 
— our  independence  to  purchase  with  our 
blood — and  the  foundations  of  government 
to  settle.  The  genius  of  Franklin,  indeed, 
was  capacious  enough  to  pursue  the  sublime 
speculations  of  philosophy  in  the  midst  of 
such  scenes  and  such  employments  ;  and 
Edwards,  whose  great  metaphysical  work 
still  attracts  the  attention  of  the  learned  in 
every  part  of  Europe,  could 

 reason  high 

Of  Providence,  foreknowledge,  will  and  fate. 

But  in  general,  the  master-spirits  of  the  land 
found  their  faculties  sufficiently  tasked  by 
the  great  business  of  war  and  government. 


9 

How  far  we  have  since  fulfilled  the  just 
expectations  of  those  who  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  associate  with  the  enjoyment  of 
republican  freedom,  a  general  taste  for 
liberal  arts  and  studies,  sustained  by  public 
sympathy,  we  shall  perhaps  find  it  more 
difficult  to  answer.  Thirty  years'  enjoy- 
ment of  peace  and  of  liberty,  during  which 
we  had  gratuitously  participated  in  the  rich 
fruits  of  European  genius  and  invention, 
imposed  upon  us  a  heavy  weight  of  obliga- 
tion in  this  respect. 

The  intellect  of  Europe,  far  from  slum- 
bering during  this  period,  never  shone 
forth  with  a  brighter  effulgence.  Even  the 
terrific  volcano  of  the  French  Revolution 
scarcely  gave  a  momentary  interruption  to 
the  peaceful  labours  of  science ;  the  past 
glories  of  English  genius  have  been  emu- 
lated by  the  productions  of  our  own  times ; 
and  the  opulent  literature  of  Germany  has 
almost  been  created  since  we  became  a 
nation.  But  had  our  freedom  been  cloven 
down  in  some  disastrous  field  of  the  late 
conflict  with  the  parent  country,  and  the 
American  Confederacy  now  lived  only  on 


10 

the  historian's  page,  I  fear  he  would  have 
little  else  to  record  than  the  matchless  wis- 
dom by  which  it  was  founded,  and  the 
splendid  acts  of  heroic  valour  by  which  its 
fate  was  delayed.  Had  this  been  the  con- 
summation of  our  story,  those  who  meditate 
among  the  ruins  of  states  and  empires, 
would  have  found  few  vestiges  of  American 
genius  in  arts  or  literature  to  attract  their 
contemplation.  I  speak  not  of  the  science 
of  government  and  of  practical  administra- 
tion— of  the  useful  arts,  or  of  mere  profes- 
sional learning  : — I  speak  of  those  arts 
which  adorn  and  embellish  human  life — 
which  invigorate  and  ennoble  the  spirit  of 
freedom — which  chastise  and  soften  the 
rudeness  of  unformed  society. 

In  the  noble  and  useful  science  of  go- 
vernment, indeed,  we  might  point  with  a 
just  pride  to  the  formation  of  our  present 
national  constitution — to  the  admirable  com- 
mentary upon  it  in  the  Letters  of  Publius, 
or  the  Federalist,  and  in  the  judicial  in- 
terpretations of  its  text — to  the  various 
discussions  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  in 
polemic  writings,  and  in  state  papers,  of  the 


11 

multiplied  questions  of  public  and  constitu- 
tional law,  to  .which  the  eventful  state  of 
the  world  and  of  our  own  domestic  politics 
had  given  rise.  We  might  appeal  to  the 
names  of  Rush  and  Bard  in  the  healing  art, 
and  to  those  of  many  learned  theologians. 
We  might  invoke  all  these  witnesses  to 
attest  the  wisdom  and  eloquence  of  our 
statesmen,  jurists,  and  legislators,  and  our 
advancement  in  mere  professional  learning. 
But  still  it  would  not  be  less  true  that  be- 
fore the  period  to  which  I  have  alluded, 
no  American  scholar  had  successfully  at- 
tempted to  subsist  by  his  literary  labours. 
We  had  produced  no  powerful  poetry — 
no  classical  works  of  history  or  biography 
— no  originally  inventive  works  of  fiction, 
(except  perhaps  the  novels  of  Brown,) 
which  could  justly  challenge  any  portion  of 
the  admiration  of  the  world  and  of  pos- 
terity. A  day-spring  has  since,  indeed, 
dawned  upon  our  view,  and  brighter  pros- 
pects now  lie  before  us.  A  purer  and  better 
taste  has  sprung  up  among  us ;  instinctively 
rejecting  the  ambitious  style  which  threat- 
ened to  corrupt  our  literature  even  before 


12 

it  was  formed,  and  demanding  something 
besides  a  tame  and  servile  imitation  of  the 
English  classics.  An  original  school  of 
American  poetry  has  been  formed ;  and 
writers  of  fiction  have  appeared,  whom  we 
hail  as  the  genuine  interpreters  of  nature, 
both  as  her  voice  is  uttered  by  man  in 
general,  and  as  she  appears  among  the  pe- 
culiar associations  of  our  romantic  scenery, 
in  our  revolutionary  story,  and  our  domestic 
manners. 

Still  we  cannot  forget  the  period  when  a 
general  sense  of  languor,  of  feebleness,  and 
of  mediocrity  weighed  upon  our  literary 
existence — when  there  was  no  demand 
among  us  but  for  active  professional  or 
business  talents — when  our  scholars  felt  no 
other  incentive  to  their  exertions  than  the 
pure  pleasures  which  the  cultivation  of  let- 
ters must  always  bestow. 

I  do  not  mean  to  intimate,  in  what  I  have 
said  of  the  caution  necessary  to  be  observed 
in  contemplating  what  we  have  already  ac- 
complished, that  this  country  has  contribut- 
ed nothing  to  increase  the  stores  of  human 
knowledge.    On  the  contrary,  I  am  well 


]3 

aware  that  much  injustice  has  been  done  us 
in  this  respect,  by  the  malevolence  of  Euro- 
pean criticism  ;  and  that  to  have  given  to 
the  world  the  model  of  such  a  beneficent 
government,  of  humane  laws,  and  of  an 
ample  provision  for  the  elementary  educa- 
tion of  the  people,  and  to  have  sustained 
them  by  eloquence  and  wisdom,  adequate  to 
all  the  occasions  by  which  they  have  yet 
been  tried,  ought  to  be  sufficient  to  redeem 
us  from  the  reproach  of  entirely  neglecting 
the  inestimable  advantages  of  our  condition. 
But  the  illusions  of  national  pride  are  some 
of  the  most  formidable  obstacles  to  national 
improvement  in  science  and  in  literature. 
A  nation,  like  an  individual,  must  not  only 
greatly  dare — it  must  not  only  be  conscious 
of  its  own  intellectual  power — but  it  must 
hold  up  to  itself  an  original  and  elevated 
standard  of  intellectual  attainments.  We 
may  apply  to  literature  in  general,  what  the 
great  teacher  of  Roman  eloquence  says  of 
his  own  art :  Nam  est  certe  aliquid  consum- 
mata  eloquentia ;  neque  ad  earn  pervenire 
natura  humani  ingenii  prohibet ;  quod  si 
non  contingat,  altius  tamen  ibunt  qui  ad 


14 

summa  nitentur.  But  they  who  fancy  that 
they  have  already  attained  the  summit,  when 
they  have  only  made  some  feeble  efforts  to 
gain  the  vantage  ground  which  will  enable 
them  to  begin  to  climb  the  lofty  paths  of 
Science,  will  never  rise  above  their  own 
tame  conceptions  of  excellence.  The  lite- 
rature of  a  nation  cannot  be  highly  culti- 
vated, and  bear  its  noblest  fruits,  if  it  is 
trained  to  a  servile  imitation  of  models  of 
imaginary  perfection,  but  real  mediocrity. 
It  must  bear  the  impress  of  the  nation's  own 
peculiar  character — must  breathe  forth  its 
original  thoughts  and  feelings — must  speak 
of  the  story  and  traditions  of  the  land 
where  it  dwells,  or  from  whence  its  fathers 
came — must  connect  itself  with  all  that  is 
beautiful  or  grand  in  their  external  scenery, 
and  the  moral  associations  belonging  to  it. 

Among  the  causes  which  have  hitherto 
impeded  the  cultivation  of  letters  in  the 
United  States,  some  have  enumerated  the 
want  of  a  national  language  and  literature 
peculiar  to  ourselves,  and  the  consequent 
servitude  to  foreign  models.  But  this  will 
hardly  be  considered  as  a  sufficient  apolosrv 


15 

for  our  past  literary  deficiencies,  when  we 
consider  that  our  fathers  spoke  and  wrote 
the  noble  dialect  of  England,  not  as  a 
foreign  language,  but  as  their  own  native 
idiom ;  that  they  broke  off  from  the  parent 
stem,  after  that  idiom  had  been  perfected  by 
the  pens  of  Shakspeare,  and  Milton,  and 
Taylor,  and  Clarendon ;  that  their  descen- 
dants have  constantly  been  supplied  with 
the  standard  productions  of  the  British 
press,  and  have  never  been  strangers  to  the 
real  or  supposed  improvements  which  each 
successive  age  has  wrought  in  English 
diction.  During  all  this  lapse  of  time,  the 
genial  soil  of  England  has  never  ceased  to 
bear  fruits  and  flowers  worthy  of  the  spring- 
time of  her  literature,  though  often  sup- 
pressed in  their  growth  by  foreign  and  false 
modes  of  culture.  Our  countrymen  were 
therefore,  in  this  respect,  placed  upon  an 
equal  footing  with  their  British  brethren. 
Originality  of  language  is  immaterial  to  the 
success  of  literary  enterprise.  The  lan- 
guage of  the  mind  is  to  be  found  in  its  own 
vigorous,  overpowering  thoughts  and  emo- 
tions. It  matters  not  in  what  dialect  they 
3 


16 

are  poured  forth.  The  forms  of  diction 
used  by  different  nations  who  write  the 
same  language,  are  no  more  necessarily 
alike,  than  those  of  different  individuals ; 
nor  is  the  imitation  of  the  classical  models 
of  English  style  more  likely  to  have  an 
unfavourable  influence  upon  an  American, 
than  a  British  writer — upon  a  Franklin  or  a 
Frisbie,  than  upon  a  Burke  or  a  Johnson. 
It  is  the  faculty  of  true  genius  to  assimilate 
with  itself,  and  incorporate  into  its  own 
intellectual  nature,  the  elements  produced 
by  other  minds.  Thus  the  poetical  powers 
of  Dante  and  Milton  were  nourished,  and 
sustained,  and  strengthened,  by  ambro- 
sia gathered  from  the  rich  fields  of  Virgil 
and  Homer.  In  highly  gifted  and  well 
regulated  minds,  the  profound  study  and 
ardent  admiration  of  such  models  produces 
merely  the  effects  of  that  liberal  imitation 
which  teaches  them  to  think,  speak,  and 
write,  as  other  great  men  would  have 
thought,  spoken  and  written,  when  placed 
in  the  same  circumstances.  We  shall,  there- 
fore, find  ourselves  compelled  to  attribute 
our  literary  poverty  to  the  want  of  true 


17 

intellectual  courage  and  enterprise — to  the 
want  of  that  noble  self-reliance  and  con- 
sciousness of  intellectual  power,  which  has 
of  late  only  been  seen  among  us ;  rather 
than  to  the  possession  and  full  enjoyment  of 
the  literary  riches  which  have  been  shower- 
ed upon  us  from  the  abundant  sources  of 
the  parent  country. 

The  defect  of  patronage,  and  of  those 
aids  which  are  united  in  the  extensive  libra- 
ries, museums,  and  laboratories,  which  the 
taste  and  munificence  of  European  sove- 
reigns and  republics  have  collected  and 
founded,  may  with  more  appearance  of  jus- 
tice be  considered  as  real  obstacles  to  the 
growth  and  improvement  of  science  and 
letters  among  us.  At  the  same  time,  we 
cannot  be  unmindful  of  the  change  which 
has  taken  place  in  the  usages  of  society  in 
this  particular.  The  foundations  of  that 
dependence,  in  which  men  of  letters  were 
once  held  upon  the  great,  have  been  shaken; 
and  that  disgraceful  commerce  of  servility 
and  flattery,  which  once  prevailed  between 
them,  has  almost  ceased.  Instead  of  the 
patronage  of  princes  and  nobles,  who  de- 


18 

mand  expensive  adulation,  we  have  that  of 
a  reading  public,  the  most  numerous  in  pro- 
portion to  our  populousness  which  the  world 
has  yet  seen.    The  writer  of  genius  and 
learning  who  is  able  at  once  to  instruct  and 
delight  mankind  by  the  labours  of  his  pen, 
needs,  as  recent  experience  has  shown,  no 
other  patronage  than  that  of  the  great  body 
of  his  countrymen.    If,  before  the  event  to 
which  I  have  already  referred  as  marking  a 
new  epoch  in  our  intellectual  history,  one 
or  two  writers  of  ingenious  fiction  or  smooth 
poetry  were  overlooked  by  the  American 
public,  whilst  every  thing  that  issued  from 
the  British  press,  and  had  received  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  higher  tribunals  of  criticism  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  was  eagerly 
sought  for,  it  is  probably  to  be  attributed  to 
that  sense  of  helplessness  and  dependence 
which  had  become  almost  a  part  of  our 
intellectual  nature.     It  may   perhaps  be 
considered  as  one  of  the  greatest  incidental 
benefits  we  have  derived  from  the  vindica- 
tion of  our  national  rights  in  the  late  war 
with  Great  Britain,  that  it  revived  and  quick- 
ened our  sense  of  national  pride,  roused  all 


19 

those  generous  emotions  connected  with 
the  love  of  country,  and  stimulated  our  am- 
bition to  be  distinguished  in  every  thing 
which  contributes  to  true  national  glory. 

Such  political  events  are  often  the  precur- 
sors of  great  changes  in  the  intellectual 
character  of  a  people :  the  passions  excited 
by  a  sense  of  the  public  danger,  and  the 
faculties  exerted  to  repel  it,  give  a  new  im- 
pulse and  energy  to  the  national  genius, 
which  is  afterwards  directed  with  fresh  ac- 
tivity to  other  objects. 

Whether  this  event  was  one  of  the  effi- 
cient causes  of  that  new  spring  which  has 
recently  been  given  to  our  literary  enter- 
prise ;  or  whether  it  merely  marks  the  epoch 
when  other  causes  combining  have  produced 
the  same  effect,  is  perhaps  immaterial :  it  is 
certain  that  much  yet  remains  to  be  done ; 
that  unless  our  endeavours  are  effectually 
aided  and  encouraged  by  ampler  endow- 
ments for  the  higher  branches  of  education, 
and  by  the  establishment  of  more  extensive 
libraries  of  reference,  and  more  perfect  col- 
lections of  scientific  instruments — the  hopes 
of  those  who  take  an  intense  interest  in  our 


20 

literary  prosperity  and  reputation  must  be 
deferred  to  a  more  auspicious  season.  We 
do  not  expect  or  require  the  magnificence 
of  the  Alexandrian  and  Pergamean — of  the 
Bodleian  or  Vatican  collections ;  but  all 
who  have  had  occasion  to  investigate  any 
subject  beyond  the  confines  of  mere  pro- 
fessional learning,  or  the  popular  literature 
and  current  politics  of  the  day,  must  have 
experienced  the  painful  mortification  of  be- 
ing arrested  in  their  course  for  want  of  the 
books  necessary  to  complete  -it.  The  circle 
of  human  knowledge  is  immense ;  and 
though  the  works  of  those  master  minds, 
who  have  exercised  a  decisive  influence  on 
opinion  in  any  age,  are  few  in  number, 
yet  no  subject  of  science  or  literature  can 
be  thoroughly  investigated  without  taking  a 
wide  range.  Even  the  largest  libraries  in 
the  country  fall  far  short  of  its  ljterary 
wants ; — but  our  own  city  has  been  pecu- 
liarly deficient  in  this  respect,  and  we  con- 
fidently hope  that  one  of  the  earliest  fruits 
of  our  association  will  be  the  foundation  of 
a  library,  which  shall  be  worthy  of  that  libe- 
ral spirit  and  munificence  which  ought  to 


21 

characterize  the  commercial  metropolis  of 
America.  No  private  resources  can  compass 
even  the  new  works  of  science  and  litera- 
ture which  annually  issue  from  the  printing 
presses  of  America  and  Europe  ;  and  there 
is  no  institution  yet  established  among  us 
endowed  with  funds  adequate  for  such  an 
object.  But  this  is  indispensably  neces- 
sary, were  it  for  no  other  purpose  than 
merely  to  keep  pace  with  the  literary  and 
scientific  history  of  the  age.  Unless  the 
progress  of  knowledge  is  accurately  known, 
how  can  the  man  of  science  or  letters,  on 
this  side  the  Atlantic,  determine  in  what 
direction  to  pursue  his  inquiries  ?  How  can 
he  foresee,  in  treading  any  of  the  innumer- 
able paths  which  modern  science  has  open- 
ed, that  his  steps  will  not  be  crossed  in 
some  direction,  and  the  interesting  disco- 
veries he  fondly  supposes  he  has  made,  be 
found  to  have  been  anticipated  by  some 
more  fortunate  or  better  guided  adventurer  ? 
Many  of  those  branches  of  literature  which 
depend  upon  minute  and  laborious  re- 
search— upon  the  collation  of  authorities, 
and  comparison  of  testimonies,  (such  as  the 


22 

science  of  philology  or  verbal  criticism,  and 
the  illustration  of  antiquities,)  will  always 
be  best  cultivated  in  the  older  countries  of 
Europe,  where  the  division  and  cheapness 
of  literary  labour  facilitate  its  operations. 
But  the  results  of  the  patient  industry,  and 
profound  learning  of  the  classical  scholars 
and  antiquaries  of  Germany  and  England, 
must  ever  be  an  object  of  interest  with  our 
own  students  of  ancient  literature.  Above 
all,  the  piercing  eyes  which  the  former  have 
sent  into  the  dark  recesses  of  antiquity,  and 
the  sagacity  with  which  they  have  sought 
to  discover  the  causes  of  the  grandeur  and 
decay  of  those  nations  who  have  disappeared 
from  the  face  of  the  globe,  by  studying  the 
true  spirit  of  their  institutions  and  manners, 
must  fix  on  their  researches  the  curiosity  of 
the  lover  of  historical  studies — a  curiosity 
which  can  only  be  gratified  by  having  ac- 
cess to  their  voluminous  and  constantly  in- 
creasing collections. (1) 

But  it  is  not  in  the  wrecks  of  another 
world  alone,  that  the  activity  of  human  in- 
tellect is  now  busying  itself.  The  grand 
physical  features  of  the  globe  are  explored 


23 

with  an  enterprise  and  courage,  and  the 
conquests  of  science  are  pursued  with  an 
ardour  and  perseverance,  which  eminently 
distinguish  the  present  age  above  all  the 
generations  of  men  that  have  preceded  it. 
The  rapid  progress  of  these  discoveries 
cannot  be  followed  without  the  aid  of  ex- 
pensive books,  drawings,  engravings,  and 
maps — of  models  of  ancient  and  foreign 
buildings ;  copies  of  gems,  medals,  coins, 
statues,  and  busts  :  not  merely  for  the  pur- 
poses of  art,  but  in  order  to  illustrate  the 
civil  history,  the  religion,  the  manners  and 
customs  of  nations — to  facilitate  the  re- 
searches of  the  student  of  geography,  of 
history,  of  classical  literature,  of  antiqui- 
ties— to  give  precision  and  life  to  his  know- 
ledge— to  impart  reality  and  vigour  to  his 
conceptions  of  things  absent  and  past. 

These  helps  to  the  acquisition  of  know- 
ledge may  be  rendered  still  more  effectual 
by  oral  instruction  in  the  form  of  popular 
lectures,  where  the  truths  of  physical  science 
may  be  explained  by  experiments,  and  the 
theory  of  Art  may  be  developed  by  the  ex- 
hibition of  its  beautiful  productions.  The 

4 


24 


history  of  the  improvements  in  mechanical 
and  chymical  philosophy,  which  have  pro- 
duced so  great  a  revolution  in  the  applica- 
tion of  human  industry,  and  have  so  much 
augmented  the  value  of  its  products,  may 
be  illustrated  in  the  same  manner.  The 
Cyclopean  labours  of  the  steam  engine,  with 
the  other  wonderful  mechanical  inventions 
of  the  present  age — the  application  of  chy- 
mistry  to  agriculture  and  the  useful  arts — 
the  gigantic  sublimity  of  Egyptian,  and  the 
simple  elegance  of  Grecian  architecture — 
the  splendid  creations  of  sculpture  and 
painting, — may  be  displayed  by  models  of 
machines  and  buildings,  by  casts  and  draw- 
ings, which,  combined  with  experiments  and 
oral  explanations,  may  excite  a  more  intense 
and  lively  interest,  and  produce  a  more  vi- 
vid impression,  than  the  unassisted  elo- 
quence of  language  alone  can  ever  import, 
even  to  the  most  intelligent  audience.  But 
even  the  more  abstract  sciences — those 
which  ore  less  capable  of  illustration  from 
sensible  objects,  m;iv  bo  taught  in  this  man- 
ner, with  more  effect  and  more  general 
usefulness,  than  in  books  and  private  in- 


25 

struction.  The  salutary  truths  of  politi- 
cal economy  may  be  thus  widely  diffused 
throughout  the  community,  and  the  beau- 
ties of  poetry  and  the  other  belles  lettres 
may  be  set  forth  with  those  charms  which  a 
graceful  and  energetic  elocution  lends  to 
the  productions  of  genius. 

If  there  are  some  circumstances  in  our 
condition  which  have  hitherto  impeded  our 
literary  progress,  there  are  other  considera- 
tions which  should  encourage  those  amongst 
us  who  have  devoted  themselves  to  the 
cause  of  science,  to  persevere  in  their  pur- 
pose of  rousing  the  attention  of  their  country- 
men to  objects  so  essentially  connected  with 
national  grandeur  and  happiness.  Among 
these  considerations  may  be  reckoned  the 
peculiar  geographical  features  of  our  coun- 
try, and  the  free  and  federative  scheme  of 
its  government;  its  division  into  different 
republican  states  connected  together  by  a 
wise  political  union;  and  the  consequent 
emulation  among  the  different  member^  of 
the  confederacy  to  excel,  not  only  in  their 
political  and  economical  institutions,  but  in 
the  liberal  arts  and  sciences.  Whatever 


26 

fate  is  in  reserve  for  our  country,  we  are 
certain  that  so  long  as  it  retains  its  liberty, 
its  intellectual  energies  can  never  be  con- 
fined within  the  walls  of  a  single  capital ; 
where  the  exclusive  standards  of  taste  are 
monopolized  and  applied  to  repress  the  ex- 
cesses of  genius,  and  check  the  intellectual 
freedom  of  the  whole  nation — whose  lite- 
rary circles  exercise  a  capricious  tyrranny 
over  the  land — and  to  whose  critical  tribu- 
nals the  unfortunate  provincial  candidate 
for  literary  fame  must  bow  in  humble  sub- 
mission. 

In  this  respect,  our  situation  may  be  com- 
pared to  that  of  modern  Italy  before  the  16th 
century,  and,  in  some  particulars,  to  the  pre- 
sent condition  of  Germany;  where  the  litera- 
ry rivalship  of  so  many  different  states  and 
cities  has  produced  such  an  accumulation  of 
intellectual  wealth,  and  diffused  it  over  the 
land  ;  where  each  city  vies  with  the  other  in 
the  great  men  and  the  beautiful  monuments 
of  art  of  which  it  can  boast;  where  individual 
genius  shoots  forth  its  luxuriant  branches 
in  every  direction,  and  a  general  activity  of 
circulation  is  kept  alive  by  this  generous 


27 

spirit  of  emulation.  Had  the  various  states 
of  Italy,  at  the  epoch  to  which  I  have  refer- 
red, been  consolidated  into  one  vast  em- 
pire, the  emulation  between  its  different 
provinces  would  have  instantly  ceased; 
there  would  have  been  but  one  school  of 
letters  and  of  art  throughout  the  whole  Pe- 
ninsula. It  would  have  been  supposed,  that 
its  beautiful  language  could  be  spoken  and 
written  with  purity  and  taste  at  Rome 
alone:  Italian  poetry  would  have  lost  its 
originality  and  variety;  and  every  other 
art  would^  have  felt  the  palsying  influence 
of  the  same  servile  constraint  and  unbend- 
ing uniformity.  That  cluster  of  great  men 
who  gathered  round  the  court  of  every 
petty  prince,  or  were  collected  in  every 
free  city,  would  have  been  unknown  to 
fame.  So  too  the  rich  and  varied  literature 
of  Germany  owes  much  of  its  originality 
and  energy  to  the  fortunate  neglect  or  con- 
tempt with  which  its  earliest  efforts  were 
treated  by  the  sovereigns  of  Austria  and 
Prussia,  whilst  it  found  a  refuge  in  the  free 
cities  and  at  the  polished  courts  of  the  less 
powerful  princes.    It  is  not  at  Berlin  or 


28 

Vienna,  but  at  Weimar,  that  we  are  to  look 
for  the  German  Athens  :  but  it  is,  above  all, 
in  the  solitary,  unaided  workings  of  indivi- 
dual genius,  that  we  shall  find  the  most 
splendid  creations  of  her  intellect.  As  one 
of  her  own  poets  has  said — "  The  songs  of 
"  the  German  bards  resounded  from  the 
"  summit  of  the  mountains,  and  dashed  like 
"  a  rapid  torrent  across  the  vales  ;  the  inde- 
"  pendent  poet  recognized  no  other  laws 
"  than  the  impressions  of  his  own  free 
"  soul, — no  other  sovereign  than  his  own 
"  genius." 

Well  would  it  have  been  for  these  beau- 
tiful and  famous  countries,  if  their  splendid 
genius  or  happy  fortune  had  enabled  them 
to  form  a  federal  league,  of  sufficient  energy 
to  protect  them  against  foreign  aggression, 
whilst  it  secured  their  domestic  freedom. 
Many  of  their  loftiest  speculations  of  sci- 
ence and  most  beautiful  works  of  literature 
and  art  would  have  been  advantageously 
exchanged  for  such  %.  discovery.  But  we 
must  remember  that  a  well  adjusted  consti- 
tution of  such  a  form  of  government,  of 
sufficient  vigour  to  repel  foreign  violence, 


29 

whilst  it  is  not  strong  enough  to  crush  the 
individual  members  of  the  league,  is  one  of 
the  most  refined  and  abstract  speculations 
of  political  philosophy  ;  one  of  the  latest 
and  maturest  efforts  of  human  wisdom,  en- 
lightened by  the  calamitous  experience  of 
ages.  The  loosest  confederacy  may  answer 
the  purposes  of  common  defence  in  the  in- 
fancy of  society,  and  in  those  rude  ages 
when  the  spirit  of  freedom  first  springs  up 
in  a  nation ;  but  when  civilization,  and  arts, 
and  commerce  have  advanced,  bringing 
with  them  luxury  and  its  attendant  vices 
in  their  train,  the  adaptation  of  such  a  go- 
vernment to  the  wants  of  a  great  nation 
presents  one  of  the  most  difficult  questions 
of  political  science.  Had  the  countrymen  of 
Machiavel  and  Guicciardini,  with  all  their 
political  wisdom  and  sagacity,  been  able  to 
realize  the  solution  of  this  problem,  the  in- 
dependence of  Italy,  which  was  achieved 
by  the  turbulent  but  generous  spirits  of  the 
twelfth  century,  might  perhaps  have  been 
prolonged  to  our  own  times :  and  the  pilgrims 
of  other  countries,  instead  of  the  solitary 
column  which  stands  before  the  palace  of 


30 

the  Senator  at  Rome,(2)  the  feeble  repre- 
sentative of  that  august  body  of  which  he 
is  the  shadow,  would  have  found  the  living 
soul  of  that  liberty  which  fired  the  patriot 
tribune  Rienzi.(3)  The  traveller  who  wan- 
ders over  that  fair  land,  covered  not  only 
with  the  wrecks  of  its  former  grandeur,  but 
with  the  still  enduring  monuments  of  an- 
cient and  modern  genius  ;  where  every  ob- 
ject of  art  or  nature  is  associated  with  some 
heroic  recollection — nullum  sine  nomine 
saxum — (4>  finds  man  alone  degenerated,  lost 
to  all  the  virtues  which  constitute  the  truest 
dignity  of  his  nature ;  the  wretched  slave 
of  his  passions,  his  vices,  and  his  foreign, 
barbarian  oppressors. 

May  heaven  avert  the  omen !  May  our 
happy  union  not  be  torn  asunder,  even  be- 
fore we  have  gathered  its  best  fruits  in  the 
successful  cultivation  of  science  and  of  let- 
ters, under  the  shadow  of  its  protecting 
wings  ;  and  before  we  have  produced  any 
works  of  art  or  genius  to  command  the  ad- 
miration and  envy  of  posterity,  and  worthy 
of  that  glorious  liberty,  the  choicest  of  the 
many  blessings  which  Providence  has 
showered  upon  us ! 


31 

Doubtless  the  true  sentiment  which 
ought  to  be  inspired  by  the  calamities  of 
such  a  country  as  modern  Italy,  is  that  of  a 
generous  compassion.  To  say  that  every 
people  deserves  the  fate,  however  severe, 
which  awaits  it,  would  be  a  harsher  judg- 
ment than  our  knowledge  of  the  complica- 
ted causes  of  national  decline  warrant  us  in 
pronouncing.  It  is  but  recently  that  Greece 
has  given  new  signs  of  life ;  and  yet  the 
causes  which  have  produced  her  regenera- 
tion, have  been  fong  since  preparing  in  the 
wise  and  patriotic  foresight  of  her  chiefs. 
£?o  too,  Italy,  chastised  and  purified  by 
ages  of  cruel  sufferings,  may  yet  find  in  the 
ashes  of  her  former  grandeur  the  fires  of 
freedom,  which,  like  her  own  Vesuvius,  shall 
burst  forth  upon  her  oppressors,  and  whilst 
they  terrify  and  desolate  all  around,  re-cre- 
ate that  favoured  soil  which  once  bore  the 
noblest  fruits  of  genius. 

To  some,  popular  government  has  ap- 
peared unpropitious  to  the  cultivation  of 
literature.  The  epochs  of  its  splendour 
have  been  distinguished  by  the  names,  and 
ascribed  to  the  patronage  of  some  tyrant  of 

5 


32 

Greece — some  Ptolemy  of  Egypt — some 
Roman  emperor  or  Arabian  caliph.  Thus 
a  late  writer,  able  and  learned  no  doubt,  but 
a  calumniator  of  Democracy — after  giving 
the  previous  history  of  Athens,  and  espe- 
cially adverting  to  the  glories  which  imme- 
diately succeeded  the  Persian  invasion, 
thinks  it  a  "  wonderful  and  singular  pheno- 
"  menon  in  the  history  of  mankind,  too 
"  little  accounted  for  by  any  thing  recorded 
"  by  ancient,  or  imagined  by  modern  writers, 
"  that  during  this  period  of  turbulence,  in 
"  a  commonwealth  whose  whole  population 
"  in  free  subjects  amounted  scarcely  to  thirty 
"  thousand  families,  art,  science,  fine  taste, 
"  and  politeness,  should  have  risen  to  that 
"  perfection  which  has  made  Athens  the 
"  mistress  of  the  world  through  all  suc- 
"  ceeding  ages.  Some  sciences,"  he  adds, 
"  have  been  carried  higher  in  modern  times, 
"  and  art  has  put  forth  new  branches,  of 
"which  some  have  given  new  helps  to  Bci- 
"  ence  :  but  Athens  in  that  a^e  reached  a 
"  perfection  of  taste  that  no  country  hath 
"  since  surpassed ;  but,  on  the  contrary, 
"  all  have  looked  up  to  as  a  polar  star,  by 


33 

"  which,  after  sinking  into  the  deepest  bar- 
"  barism,  taste  has  been  guided  in  its  re- 
"  storation  to  splendour,  and  the  observation 
"  of  which  will  probably  ever  be  the  surest 
"  preservative  against  its  future  corruption 
st  or  decay."  "  Much  of  these  circum- 
"  stances  of  glory  to  Athens,  and  of  im- 
"  provement  since  so  extensively  spread 
"  over  the  world,"  he  ascribes  to  "Pericles. 
"  Peisistratus  had  nourished  the  infancy  of 
"  Attic  genius ;  Pericles  brought  it  to  ma- 
"  turity.  In  the  age  of  Peisistratus,  books 
"  were  scarcely  known,  science  was  vague, 
"  art  still  rude ;  but  during  the  turbulent 
"period  which  intervened,"  according  to 
this  writer,  "  things  had  been  so  wonder- 
"  fully  prepared,  that  in  the  age  of  Pericles, 
"  science  and  every  polite  art  waited,  as  it 
"  were,  only  his  magic  touch  to  exhibit  them 
"  to  the  world  in  meridian  splendour." 

Without  dwelling  upon  the  obliquity  of 
mind  or  disingenuousness  which  marks  this 
passage,  and  which  could  affect  not  to  see 
the  true  causes  of  this  intellectual  splen- 
dour ;  what,  let  me  ask,  was  the  turbulence 
of  this  period  ?  It  was  the  contest  of  free- 


34 

men  for  their  equal  rights — the  conflict  of 
factions  and  of  parties,  the  inevitable  con- 
comitant of  freedom — the  rivalship  and  col- 
lision of  ardent  minds,  ambitious  of  every 
kind  of  distinction — the  lively  and  intense 
interest  which  every  citizen,  however  hum- 
ble, felt  in  all  that  concerned  the  prosperity 
and  glory  of  the  state,  of  which  he  consi- 
dered himself  an  efficient  member.  This 
was  the  master-spring  which  put  in  motion 
every  faculty  of  the  soul.  Eloquence- was 
cultivated  as  the  powerful  engine  with  which 
to  work  on  public  opinion ;  and  to  render 
this  eloquence  effectual  with  such  an  audi- 
ence, the  most  refined  graces  of  action — the 
most  exquisite  beauties  of  language — every 
resource  of  moral  and  political  knowledge 
were  put  in  requisition.  In  this  turbulent 
school  Pericles  himself  was  disciplined,  and 
caught  the  inspiration  which  enabled  him  to 
exhibit  "  that  finished  model  of  the  simple 
and  sublime  in  oratory  which  has  been  the 
admiration  of  all  succeeding  ages."  But  he 
had  not  the  plastic  hand  which  could  mould 
a  Phidias  from  all  the  marble  of  Attica,  or 
create  a  Sophocles  or  Thucydides — a  Plato 


35 

or  a  Xenophon,  by  dispensing  his  own  or 
the  public  treasure.  They  loo  had  dipped 
in  the  troubled  waters  of  Democracy;  like 
himself,  they  were  some  of  the  more  vigo- 
rous plants  which  "the  wilderness  of  free 
minds"  could  furnish. 

There  is  something  truly  admirable  in 
the  spectacle  of  these  ancient  Republics  ; 
where,  although  the  loosely  compacted  ma- 
chinery of  government  afforded  but  an 
imperfect  security  for  the  enjoyment  of  in- 
dividual rights,  each  citizen  lived,  and 
moved,  and  breathed,  only  in  his  country  ; 
where  no  thought,  or  desire,  or  passion  was 
indulged,  but  for  the  prosperity  of  the 
state ;  and  where  every  selfish  and  sordid 
feeling  was  swallowed  up  in  the  all-engross- 
ing sentiment  of  patriotism.  From  the  same 
prolific  source — from  the  shattered  repub- 
lics of  Greece,  (where  the  spirit  of  liberty 
still  fondly  lingered,)  Ptolomy  Philadel- 
phus  was  enabled  to  draw  around  him  that 
constellation  of  literary  and  scientific  men, 
which  for  ages  rendered  Alexandria  the  in- 
tellectual Pharos  of  the  world.  So  too  at 
Rome,  from  the  struggles  of  the  Gracchi, 


36 

to  the  usurpation  of  Caesar — it  was  the  light 
stricken  out  by  the  collision  of  parties,  the 
freedom  of  discussion,  the  zeal  with  which 
every  citizen  advocated  or  opposed  the 
measures  of  a  government  in  which  he  par- 
ticipated, that  sharpened  the  faculties  and 
directed  the  studies  of  her  illustrious  men — 
and  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  the  great- 
est literary  treasure  which  has  descended 
to  us  from  antiquity,  the  elegant,  the  inva- 
luable works  of  Cicero.  The  majestic  lan- 
guage of  Latium  was  formed,  and  polished, 
and  all  but  perfected,  before  the  usurpa- 
tion of  Octavius.  It  received  its  highest 
perfection,  in  point  of  elegance  and  grace 
combined,  from  the  hand  of  Terence,  who 
was  the  companion  of  the  younger  Scipio 
and  of  Lselius.  It  was  the  spirit  of  the 
"  Old  Republic"  which  survived  the  field  of 
Pharsalia,  to  which  may  be  attributed  all 
that  we  admire  in  the  finished  writers  of 
the  Augusta  age;  while  we  count  as  loss 
and  dross  only  the  fulsome  flattery  which 
stains  the  immortal  pages  of  Virgil  and 
Horace — the  price  of  patronage  !  Under 
the  military  government  which  succeeded, 


37 

when  even  the  semblance  of  a  free  govern- 
ment was  no  longer  observed — Literature 
declined — the  Muses  hid  their  heads  :  or  if, 
under  the  milder  reign  of  a  Trajan  or  an 
Antonine,  "  by  the  rare  felicity  of  the  times, 
a  man  might  think  what  he  pleased,  and 
publish  what  he  thought ;"  it  was  still  the 
spirit  of  the  "  Old  Republic"  which  hovered 
over  him,  invigorated  his  genius,  and  guid- 
ed his  pen.    If  the  fine  arts  had  so  degene- 
rated in  the  age  of  Constantine,  that  he  was 
compelled  to  strip  the  monuments  of  his 
predecessors  at  Rome  of  the  statues  and 
bas-reliefs,  the  work  of  a  better  age,  in 
order  to  adorn  with  their  spoils  his  new 
capital  on  the  borders  of  the  Bosphorus, 
we  may  easily  imagine  what  must  have 
been  the  fate  of  letters  and  of  eloquence, 
oppressed  under  the  double  yoke  of  ecclesi- 
astical and  political  tyranny.  The  destruc- 
tion of  ancient  art  and  genius  was  begun 
and  nearly  completed,  long  before  the  rude 
invaders  of  the  north  and  the  east  shook  the 
throne  of  the  Caesars.    The  springs  of  soci- 
ety were  worn  out — a  universal  torpor  and 
the  stillness  of  death  was  diffused  over  its 


38 

smooth  surface,  where  all  was  fair  and  all 
was  deceitful:  public  spirit  and  public  vir- 
tue were  become  extinct — the  animating 
soul  of  genius  had  fled. 

In  short,  if  the  internal  constitutions  of  the 
ancient  republics  were  badly  constructed — 
if  they  were  not  proof  against  the  storms 
and  tempests  that  awaited  them — if  they 
did  not  afford  such  complete  security  for 
private  and  personal  rights  as  our  modern 
societies  ;  they  were  the  nurseries  of  genius 
and  learning,  of  bold  conception  and  of 
manly  thought ;  to  them  are  we  indebted  for 
the  developement  of  the  best  and  noblest 
faculties  of  human  nature — "  for  all  heroic 
deeds  and  fair  desires."  It  may  be  that  the 
men  of  those  days  appear  of  a  more  gigan- 
tic stature  in  the  haze  of  a  distant  an- 
tiquity, or  amidst  the  glare  witli  which  the 
eloquent  writers  of  their  own  times  have 
surrounded  them.    But  after  making  these 
deductions,  it  must  be  allowed  that  there 
was  something  in  the  institutions  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  which,  if  it  contributed  less 
to  private  happiness  and  domestic  tran- 
quillity, was  even  more  favourable  to  the 


39 

display  of  great  powers  of  thought  and  ac- 
tion, than  the  most  wisely  constituted  and 
nicely  balanced  governments  of  modern 
times. 

If  any  additional  proof  were  wanting,  of 
the  almost  inseparable  connexion  between 
the  growth  of  the  polite  arts,  and  national 
independence  and  civil  freedom,  it  would 
be  found  in  the  simultaneous  revival  of  let- 
ters and  liberty  on  the  favoured  soil  of  Italy. 
In  the  midst  of  the  fierce  contentions  of 
the  Italian  republics  of  the  middle  ages, 
whilst  they  struggled  against  each  other  in 
fatal  hostility,  or  leagued  to  repel  the  at- 
tacks of  their  common  enemies  ;  whilst  the 
bosom  of  every  state  was  agitated  with  the 
most  violent  convulsions,  and  the  rancour  of 
adverse  factions  was  transmitted  in  deadly 
hate  from  generation  to  generation  ;  the  arts 
and  literature  started,  as  it  were,  from  the 
sepulchres,  where  they  had  been  shrouded 
in  the  darkness  of  a  thousand  years,  and 
put  on  new  forms  of  life  and  beauty.  The 
true  dignity  of  human  nature  was  once  more 
asserted  in  the  public  councils  and  acts  of 
these  communities,  and  especially  of  Flo- 

6 


40 

rence,  where  three  or  four  thousand  free 
citizens  occupied,  in  rapid  rotation,  the  first 
offices  of  the  state,  sustained  with  wisdom 
and  firmness  the  rights  and  honour  of  their 
country,  and  acquired  an  extent  of  political 
knowledge  and  political  acuteness,  which 
baffled  the  skill  of  all  the  courts  and  cabi- 
nets of  Europe.  It  was  amidst  the  storms 
of  her  "  fierce  democratic,"  that  the  sublime 
genius  of  Michael  Angelo  was  nursed.  To 
the  agitation  of  its  billows  we  are  indebted 
for  the  wonderful  poetry  of  Dante,  with  all 
its  terrific  energy.  He  had  been  a  leader 
among  the  political  factions  of  his  coun- 
try— and  the  deep  tones  of  his  implacable 
scorn  and  hate  of  the  base  betrayers  of  her 
independence  and  freedom,  powerfully  con- 
trast with  the  deeper  pathos  of  his  allusions 
to  all  he  had  loved  and  cherished  in  Arno's 
sweet  vale. 

Perhaps  even  Athens,  in  the  brightest 
days  of  her  glory,  did  not  rival  this  noble 
city  in  the  successful  cultivation  of  the  arts 
and  learning.  They  were,  indeed,  encou- 
raged and  patronized  in  a  different  manner, 
owing  to  the  very  different  condition  of  mo- 


41 

dern  society.  Commerce  was  the  most 
honourable  employment  of  the  Florentine 
state.  Her  eminent  merchants  rose,  not 
only  to  wealth,  but  to  political  power  and 
influence,  by  the  success  of  their  commer- 
cial operations.  Her  artizans,  in  their  dif- 
ferent guilds  or  corporations,  enjoyed  a 
share  of  sovereign  authority,  and  were  fitted 
for  the  exercise  of  the  highest  public 
functions,  by  the  general  taste  for  reading 
and  for  political  discussions,  which  was 
diffused  among  them.  It  was  not  uncom- 
mon to  see  able  negociators,  and  even 
generals,  issue  from  the  work-shop  and  the 
compting-house,  and  return  to  them  again 
when  their  country  no  longer  required  their 
services.  That  ease  and  leisure  which  was 
secured  to  the  governing  class  in  the  an- 
cient republics  by  the  labour  of  slaves,  was 
afforded  to  that  of  Florence  by  the  supe- 
rior skill  and  ingenuity  of  her  artists  and 
manufacturers,  and  the  diligence,  enter- 
prise, and  frugality  of  her  merchants.  They 
did  not  cease  from  their  usual  occupations 
after  attaining  the  most  elevated  stations  of 
the  republic  ;  and  the  Medecis  continued  to 


42 

carry  on  the  accustomed  trade  of  their  an- 
cestors long  after  they  had  acquired  the 
absolute  control  over  the  public  councils 
of  their  country. 

It  is  to  the  munificence,  taste,  and  libe- 
rality of  the  first  Cosmo  de  Medeci,  that 
we  owe  the  recovery  of  many  of  the  most 
valuable  remains  of  ancient  literature.  His 
exquisite  taste  in  the  arts,  and  his  deep 
erudition,  enabled  him  to  judge  what  was 
most  worthy  of  recovery  and  preservation 
among  the  remains  of  antiquity,  and  of 
patronage  among  the  productions  of  the 
dawning  genius  of  his  countrymen.  He 
was  a  merchant,  and  at  the  same  time  a 
statesman  and  a  scholar — who  appropriated 
the  gains  of  his  trade,  not  in  selfish  sen- 
suality or  ostentatious  display,  but  in  the 
patronage  of  learning  and  the  arts — not  in 
embellishing  his  own  private  mansion,  or  in 
hoarding  up  inordinate  wealth  for  his  chil- 
dren, but  in  adorning  his  native  city  with 
permanent  monuments  of  taste  and  ge- 
nius— in  founding  magnificent  libraries  and 
museums,  which  still  attest  the  former 
grandeur  of  his  country.    His  immense 


43 

wealth  and  his  commercial  connexions, 
which  embraced  every  part  of  the  then  civi- 
lized world,  were  employed  in  the  service 
of  letters.    The  agents  of  his  commercial 
houses  in  every  country  of  Europe,  and  of 
the  East  were  instructed  to  collect  all  the 
most  precious  works  of  art,  and  the  most 
rare  and  valuable  manuscripts.    He  was 
saluted  in  his  own  life-time  with  the  title  of 
Father  of  his  Country ;  his  praises  have 
been  re-echoed  by  the  gratitude  of  letters 
in  every  age  ;  and  his  name  will  be  trans- 
mitted to  the  latest  posterity  as  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  benefactors  of  mankind. 

Such  is  the  return  which  commerce 
should  make  for  the  immense  obligations 
she  owes  to  science.  From  the  men  who 
first  read  the  stars  on  the  plains  of  Chaldaea, 
and  guided  by  their  light  "  the  ships  of  the 
desart"  in  search  of  the  riches  of  the  East — 
frankincense  and  myrrh,  "barbaric  pearl 
and  gold" — until  Vasco  de  Gama  encoun- 
tered the  stormy  genius  of  the  African  cape, 
and  the  Genoese  pilot  launched  his  frail 
barks  upon  the  broad  Atlantic;  and  still 
more  in  our  own  adventurous  and  enlight- 


44 

ened  times,  has  commerce  been  indebted 
to  science  for  opening  to  her  view  new 
paths  of  enterprise,  and  new  sources  of 
wealth.  So  too,  commerce  has  ever  delight- 
ed to  dwell  in  the  haunts  of  freedom,  and 
under  her  powerful  protection.  If  the  city 
of  Pallas  was  the  first  to  establish  equal 
laws,  she  was  also  the  foremost  in  sending 
forth  her  sons  to  colonize  the  barbarous 
regions  of  the  earth,  to  diffuse  the  soft  light 
of  Grecian  letters  and  art,  and  to  bind  to- 
gether the  most  distant  nations  by  the 
pacific  and  humanizing  ties  of  civilization 
and  commerce. 

But  American  commerce  is  above  all 
deeply  indebted  to  freedom  and  to  science — 
to  the  enlightened  sagacity  of  the  statesmen 
who  looked  forward  through  the  darkness 
of  the  future,  to  foresee  the  triumphs  which 
awaited  her  enterprise  and  industry,  (more 
splendid  than  the  fabled  achievements  of 
the  Argonauts) — of  the  men  who  laid  the 
deep  and  solid  foundations  of  her  security 
in  the  constitution  of  their  country,  who 
constructed  it  as  much  for  commerce  as  for 
liberty — for  justice — and  for  security  against 


45 

foreign  aggression.  If  commerce  be  the 
surest  basis  of  the  maritime  power  and 
grandeur  of  a  nation,  let  it  also  be  remem- 
bered that  national  power  may  become  on- 
ly the  instrument  of  injustice  to  others,  and 
of  self-inflicted  misery  on  its  possessors, 
unless  it  be  enlightened  by  wisdom  and  vir- 
tue ;  unless  it  be  chastised  and  mitigated  by 
the  propitious  influence  of  taste  and  learn- 
ing. The  superabundant  capitals  accumu- 
lated by  the  merchants  of  this  country,  are 
already  seeking  new  channels  of  employ- 
ment. They  are,  in  the  natural  order  of  so- 
ciety, flowing  into  the  reservoirs  opened  for 
them  by  the  useful  arts,  and  again  diffusing 
themselves  and  animating  every  branch  of 
industry.  They  are  ministering  to  the  im- 
provement of  the  interior,  in  every  thing 
which  contributes  to  the  comforts  of  civilized 
man — making  the  wilderness  to  blossom  as 
the  rose — bridging  the  broad  floods,  and  ex- 
cavating the  lofty  barriers,  which  seem  to 
have  been  interposed,  not  to  deter,  but  to 
excite  the  persevering  courage  of  man  to 
overcome  the  difficulties  which  are  insuper- 
able to  all  but  the  eye  of  genius.  Soon 


46 

shall  these  gigantic  aqueducts  overleap  the 
ramparts  of  the  Appalachian,  not  to  bear 
some  future  Hannibal  or  Napoleon  to  the 
conquests  of  the  fertile  plains  of  the  west — 
but  (as  we  fondly  hope)  to  unite  the  father 
of  floods  with  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic — 
to  carry  the  peaceful  triumphs  of  American 
industry  beyond  that  other  rampart  which 
stands  as  if  to  forbid  our  approach  to  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific. 

If  commerce  is  already  able  to  spare  from 
her  coffers  the  means  of  constructing  these 
monuments,  grander  far  than  those  by  which 
the  Eternal  City  signalized  her  dominion 
over  the  subject  world — surely  she  may,  out 
of  her  abundance,  contribute  something  to 
the  still  nobler  object  of  improving  the  high- 
er and  better  part  of  our  nature — of  adding 
to  the  gratification  of  those  wants  which  na- 
ture and  civilization  have  created,  the  im- 
provement of  our  intellectual  faculties — 
the  embellishment  of  life  by  all  those  arts 
which  give  to  polished  society  its  chief 
ornament  and  grace — and  the  exaltation  of 
the  national  character,  by  that  superiority 
which  the  general  sentiment  of  mankind 


47 

• 

has  regarded  as  the  chief  title  to  distinc- 
tion. In  the  decline  of  national  greatness, 
freedom  may  fade — agriculture  may  lan- 
guish and  decay — riches  and  the  useful  arts 
may  take  to  themselves  wings,  and  flv  to 
some  more  genial  clime :  but  the  glory  of 
science  and  letters  will  survive  the  general 
wreck,  and  command  for  the  nation  whom 
they  once  illustrated,  the  admiration  and 
sympathy  of  the  world.  Every  object  of  art 
or  nature  with  which  the  achievements  of 
such  a  nation  are  associated, — the  mountain 
streams  of  her  poetry — the  battle  plains  on 
which  her  freedom  was  lost  or  won — the 
vestiges  of  her  ruined  temples  and  senate 
houses — the  places  where  her  patriots  stood 
forth  to  avert  her  doom  with  the  warning, 
prophetic  voice  of  wisdom — all  these  are  sa- 
cred in  the  eyes  of  the  generous  and  the 
free,  who  throng  from  every  clime  to  tread 
her  "  haunted,  holy  ground."  What  is  it 
but  this  that  lends  such  an  irresistible 
charm  to  that  country  in  whose  struggles  for 
a  new  existence,  the  wise  and  the  good,  in 
every  region,  take  such  an  intense  interest? 
There  are  other  skies  as  fair — other  fruits  as 
7 


48 

golden — and  other  mountains  with  forms  as 
romantic  and  graceful  as  those  of  Hellas. 
But  hers  is  the  land  of  gods  and  godlike 
men. 


In  that  fair  clime,  the  lonely  herdsman,  stretchM 
On  the  soft  grass,  through  half  a  summer's  day, 
With  music  lulled  his  indolent  repose  : 
And  in  some  fit  of  weariness,  if  he, 
When  his  own  breath  was  silent,  chanc'd  to  hear 
A  distant  strain,  far  sweeter  than  the  sounds 
Which  his  poor  skill  could  make,  his  fancy  fetch'd, 
Even  from  the  blazing  chariot  of  the  sun, 
A  beardless  youth,  who  touched  a  golden  lute, 
And  filled  th'  illumined  groves  with  ravishment. 

This  sacred  light,  which  the  imagination 
of  the  Greeks  thus  brought  from  above,  has 
been  since  transmitted  to,  and  found  a  wel- 
come in,  every  clime  where  there  were  hearts 
capable  of  feeling  its  influence :  it  has  shot 
across  the  universe,  and  cheered  the  nations 
with  its  rays:  it  has  left  a  bright  track  be- 
hind it,  and  points  to  man  the  path  to  that 
heaven  whence  it  came.  The  Greeks  thus 
became  the  parents  and  instructors  of  man- 
kind in  poetry,  in  philosophy,  in  eloquence, 
in  art,  in  all  that  contributes  to  the  true  dig- 


49 

nity  of  human  nature.  For  these  gifts,  the 
grateful  benedictions  of  their  fellow  men,  in 
every  region  of  the  civilized  globe,  ascend 
and  wait  upon  their  holy  conflict.  Strike, 
sons  of  Hellas,  for  freedom  and  for  ven- 
geance! Arise,  Pallas,  and  guard  thy  be- 
loved walls  with  the  terror  of  that  iEgis, 
which  frighted  the  stern  soul  of  Alaric  from 
his  barbarous  intent ! (5) 

Such  are  the  high  incentives  which  should 
impel  us  in  the. career  of  intellectual  im- 
provement, and  such  the  bright  anticipations 
we  may  indulge  from  the  peculiar  advan- 
tages of  our  situation  as  a  nation.  But  the 
progress  of  society  has  been  so  rapid  ;  the 
improvements  and  discoveries  in  politics, 
in  morals,  in  arts,  and  in  manners,  have 
been  so  great ;  and  such,  above  all,  is  the 
vantage  ground  that  we  have  gained  as  a 
nation,  that  even  if  the  lights  of  history 
should  fail  us  in  the  novelty  of  our  peculiar 
situation,  and  a  review  of  other  times  and 
other  countries  should  afford  us  no  ana- 
logies on  which  we  could  certainly  rely,  we 
should  still  have  a  right  to  look  forward 
with  cheerful  confidence  to  the  future.  We 


50 

inherit  from  our  ancestors  a  government  of 
law  and  liberty,  which  we  feel  and  know  to 
be  favourable  to  the  developement  of  every 
liberal  talent.  We  may  rely  upon  its  per- 
manency with  the  stronger  assurance,  be- 
cause no  other  form  of  rule  is  suited  to  our 
habits,  our  manners,  and  our  condition  ;  and 
because  it  has  already  endured  the  test  of 
two  hundred  years'  experience.  The  poli- 
tical institutions  and  genius  of  our  people 
have  always  been  essentially  republican 
from  the  first  settlement  of  the  country. 
Our  ancestors  were  the  cotemporaries  of 
the  great  men  whose  free  spirit,  bursting 
forth  in  the  first  reign  of  the  Stuarts,  pre- 
pared the  glories  of  the  English  Common- 
wealth, and  by  the  final  expulsion  of  that 
infatuated  race,  laid  the  foundations  of  that 
pre-eminence  Great  Britain  has  since  en- 
joyed in  arts,  in  letters,  and  in  national 
power.  This  confirmed  stability  of  our  in- 
stitutions is  a  consoling  reflection,  since  the 
constitution  of  a  government  is  not  the  in- 
vention of  a  day ;  it  must  be  the  living 
offspring  of  time  and  experience;  it  must 
grow  with  the  growth,  and  strengthen  with 


51 

the  strength  of  a  nation  :  it  must  entwine 
itself  with  every  fibre  of  its  existence  ;  and 
become  incorporated  with  its  other  institu- 
tions, with  its  manners  and  usages,  its  feel- 
ings, and  its  opinions. 

From  among  the  various  dialects  of  mo- 
dern Europe,  we  have  fortunately  inherited 
a  copious,  free  and  manly  language  ;  not  the 
slave  of  inflexible  forms  of  diction,  but  ca- 
pable of  receiving  the  varied  impressions  of 
unrestrained  genius ;  a  language  already  dif- 
fused from  the  rising  to  the  setting  sun — 
from  the  banks  of  the  Ganges  to  those  of 
the  Missouri — from  the  Arctic  circle  to  the 
remotest  regions  of  Australasia.  The  age 
in  which  we  live  is,  more  than  any  other  that 
has  preceded  it,  the  age  of  intellectual  exer- 
tion, and  of  intellectual  power.  Never  be- 
fore did  literary  men  exercise  so  great  an 
influence  over  public  opinion;  not  merely 
that  of  individuals  and  of  nations,  but  over 
the  powerful  of  the  earth,  and  those  to 
whom  the  happiness  of  millions  is  commit- 
ted. It  may  also  be  emphatically  called  a 
reading  age.  To  say  nothing  of  those  an- 
cient races  of  men  who  carried  many  of  the 
arts  of  civilization  to  the  highest  pitch  of 


52 

splendour,  but  to  whom  the  art  of  alphabet- 
ical writing  was  wholly  unknown — the  men 
who  covered  the  walls  of  Thebes  and  Perse- 
polis  with  eternal  emblems  of  inscrutable 
mystery ;  even  those  nations  that  were  ac- 
quainted with  the  use  of  letters — the  Greeks 
and  Romans,  imparted  their  knowledge 
chiefly  by  oral  instruction,  which  must  have 
slowly  descended  to  the  mass  of  the  people. 
Even  that  eloquence,  which 

"  Shook  th'  arsenal,  and  fulmin'd  over  Greece, 
"  To  Macedon  and  Artaxerxes'  throne  " 

was  in  truth  confined  within  the  walls  of  a 
single  city.  It  could  not  take  the  wings 
which  the  art  of  printing  has  since  lent  to 
thought,  and  thus  be  diffused  over  the  habi- 
table globe.  By  this  aid  the  scholar  now 
speaks  from  his  closet  to  millions  of  think- 
ing beings.  At  the  present  moment  there 
is  a  larger  proportion  of  the  civilized  inhabi- 
tants of  the  earth,  who  read  extensively, 
than  at  any  former  period  since  the  inven- 
tion of  letters.  If  this  be  true  of  old  Eu- 
rope, it  is  still  more  true  of  OUT  happy  coun- 
try, where  the  means  of  education  are  so 
widely  disseminated. 


53 

The  vapid  diffusion  and  progress  of  know- 
ledge is  promoted  by  that  general  communi- 
cation which  now  takes  place  between  mind 
and  mind,  and  that  sympathy  with  each 
other,  which  is  universally  felt  by  those  who 
are  engaged  in  intellectual  pursuits  through- 
out the  world.  Not  an  invention  in  the  use- 
ful arts,  not  a  discovery  in  science,  not  a 
new  creation  of  genius  can  any  where  take 
place,  but  what  is  instantly  borne  to  the  re- 
motest corners  of  the  earth,  and  ministers 
to  the  comfort,  the  instruction,  or  the  delight 
of  mankind  in  every  region.  The  sparks 
of  knowledge,  struck  out  in  those  favoured 
climes,  where  the  intellect  was  first  awaken- 
ed to  a  consciousness  of  its  own  powers, 
are  now  scattered  abroad  over  "  the  many 
peopled  globe,"  and  streaming  upward,  il- 
lumine the  whole  horizon  with  their  vivi- 
fying light. 

The  general  improvement  of  the  age  has 
been  powerfully  reflected  upon  the  condi- 
tion and  character  of  the  female  sex.  Wo- 
men have  been  raised  in  the  scale  of  social 
estimation,  not  only  above  the  rank  they  en- 
joyed in  the  most  polished  states  of  an- 


54 

tiquity,  but  in  that  boasted  age  of  chivalry, 
where  the  affectation  of  romantic  loyalty 
and  devotion  to  the  sex,  was  so  strongly 
contrasted  with  their  real  degradation.  How 
different  are  the  qualities  which  attracted 
this  devotion,  from  that  standard  of  excel- 
lence which  public  opinion  now  requires  in 
the  female  character  in  order  to  command 
its  homage  and  respect ;  how  different  from 
that  state  of  society  and  of  mental  cultiva- 
tion which  produced  the  intellectual  energy 
of  "  the  blameless  wife  of  Roland,"  and  the 
magic  eloquence  of  the  admirable  Corin- 
na  ;  or  from  that  higher  and  more  etherial 
region  of  mind  and  morals  where  dwelt  the 
pure  spirits  of  the  Edgeworths  and  Mores. 

Largior  hie  campos  aether  et  lumine  vestit 
Purpureo  ;  solemque  suum,  sua  sidera  norunt. 

Nothing  then  seems  to  be  wanting  to  pro- 
mote the  progress  of  science  and  letters 
among  us  but  public  sympathy,  and  a  more 
active  encouragement  to  every  exertion  of 
our  literary  men.  In  this  they  are  to  find 
both  their  reward  and  the  incentive  to  freah 
endeavours.  This  encouragement  is  espe- 
cially due  to  every  attempt  to  enlarge  the 


55 

means  of  instruction  ;  to  draw  science  down 
from  lofty  abstraction  to  practical  use  ;  to 
bring  it  home  to  men's  business  and.  bo- 
soms— to  diffuse  a  general  taste  for  the  li- 
beral arts  and  letters  throughout  society.  I 
will  not  speak  to  you  of  the  agreeable  re- 
laxation to  be  found  in  these  pursuits  from 
the  oppressive  toils  and  cares  of  business, 
and  the  still  more  oppressive  toils  and  cares 
of  fashionable  dissipation  ;  of  their  talis- 
manic  power  to  avert  the  malignant  influence 
of  that  demon  who  lurks  in  the  train  of  ex- 
cessive civilization  and  refinement,  and  poi- 
sons the  fountains  of  pleasure  in  polished 
life.  I  will  not  remind  you  of  the  consola- 
tion afforded  by  the  cultivation  of  letters  in 
adversity — of  the  balm  it  ministers  to  the 
soul  wounded  in  its  dearest  affections — of 
the  pure  and  elevated  enjoyments  it  be- 
stows. I  will  not  speak  to  you  of  these,  be- 
cause I  know  you  will  be  influenced  by 
other  more  disinterested  and  more  patriotic 
motives  to  countenance  with  your  protection 
and  patronage  the  enterprise  in  which  we 
are  engaged.  We  believe  that  it  is  closely 
connected  with  the  happiness  of  society,  and 
8 


56 

with  the  permanent  prosperity  and  true  glory 
of  our  common  country.    We  feel  that  it 
appeals  powerfully  to  the  wise  and  the  good ; 
to  those  generous  minds  who  do  not  despair 
of  the  Commonwealth  ;  to  those  who  would 
labour  for  a  distant  posterity  with  the  cer- 
tainty that  their  toils  will  not  be  unrequited^ 
We  inhabit  aland  of  vast  extent,  possessing 
every  variety  of  soil  and  climate,  and  abound- 
ing with  natural  scenery,  the  most  pictu- 
resque, romantic,  and  grand.    The  increase 
of  our  population  has,  as  yet,  found  little  or 
no  resistance  in  the  want  of  the  means  of 
subsistence.    Its  tide  is  now  swelling  and 
overflowing  in  every  direction  ;  and  perhaps 
before  some  of  those  who  are  now  present 
shall  see  death,  it  will  equal,  if  not  surpass 
that  of  the  greatest  empires  of  the  old 
world.    But  this  rapid  increase  of  numbers 
will  not  be  attended  with  a  correspondent 
increase  of  happiness,  unless  the  region  of 
intellect  is  cultivated  as  well  as  that  which 
yields  a  supply  to  our  physical  wants.  Man 
has  higher  wants  and  capacities.    His  soul 
is  filled  with  aspirations  after  knowledge 
and  fame  ;  with  an  insatiable  thirst  of  happi- 


57 

ness,  which  seeks  for  its  gratification,  not  in 
the  enjoyments  of  sense,  but  in  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  powers  of  his  intellectual  and 
moral  nature.  The  sentiment  of  patriotism 
is  not  merely  associated  with  the  clods 
of  the  valley  which  gave  us  birth.  It  is 
complicated  of  the  recollections  of  the  great 
men  our  country  has  produced  ;  of  their  he- 
roic and  beneficent  actions ;  of  affection 
for  its  institutions,  its  manners,  its  fame  in 
arts  and  in  arms/  This  sentiment  must  be 
cherished  and  invigorated  by  associating 
with  it  an  enlightened  love  of  liberty — a 
taste  for  knowledge,  and  an  ardent  enthu- 
siasm for  those  arts  which  lend  to  human 
existence  its  most  refined  enjoyments. 
Could  the  genius  of  our  country  reveal  to 
our  astonished  view  the  future  glories  which 
await  the  progress  of  confederated  America; 
could  he  show  us  the  countless  trillions  who 
will  swarm  in  the  wide  spread  valleys  of  the 
West,  tasting  of  happiness,  and  sharing  the 
blessings  of  equal  laws  ;  could  he  unrol  the 
pages  of  her  history,  and  permit  us  to  see 
the  fierce  struggles  of  her  factions — the 
threatened  mutations  of  her  empire — the 


58 

bloody  fields  of  her  triumphs  and  her  disas- 
ters :  could  he  crowd  these  awful  visions 
upon  our  souls,  we  should  then  see  that  all 
the  prosperity  that  awaits  us,  depends  on 
the  supremacy  of  mind — on  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  intellect — on  the  diffusion  of 
knowledge  and  the  arts;  not  merely  to  the 
chosen  few,  but  to  that  immense  multitude 
who  are  at  once  invested  with  the  privileges 
pf  Freedom  and  the  prerogatives  of  Power. 


NOTES 


Page  22 — line  22. 

(1)  The  indefatigable  researches  of  the  German  scho- 
lars into  the  history  of  the  political  institutions  of  the 
ancient  states,  seem  only  of  late  to  have  attracted  the 
attention  of  literary  men  in  other  countries.  See  the  re- 
view of  the  Roman  history  of  Niebuhr,  by  Professor  Eve- 
rett, in  the  39th  number,  p.  425,  of  the  North  American, 
in  which  the  much  misunderstood  and  misrepresented 
subject  of  the  Agrarian  laws  is  clearly  explained.  See 
also  the  notice  of  the  same  work,  of  an  essay  on  the 
same  subject  by  Professor  Wachsmuth  of  Halle,  and 
of  the  Roman  Antiquities  by  Professor  Creuzer  of 
Heidelberg,  in  the  63d  number  of  the  London  Quarter- 
ly Review.  A  translation  of  Baron  Niebuhrs  valuable 
work,  or  of  so  much  of  it  as  has  yet  appeared,  is  about 
to  be  published  by  professor  Henry,  of  the  College  at 
Columbia,  in  South  Carolina.  That  portion  of  the  ex- 
tensive work  of  Mr.  Heeren,  entitled  u  Reflections  on 
the  Politics,  Intercourse,  and  Commerce  of  the  Chief 
Nations  of  Antiquity/'*  which  relates  to  Greece,  has  been 
elegantly  translated  by  Mr.  Bancroft,  of  jSorthampton  ; 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  he  may  be  encouraged  to  pro- 
ceed with  those  portions  which  relate  to  the  ancient  na- 
tions of  Asia  and  Africa,  which  must  be  equally  curious 
and  instructive  with  the  part  he  Jias  already  published. 


60 

Such  works  enable  us  to  read  what  is  commonly  called 
History,  with  new  eyes ;  to  appreciate  more  fully  the 
rare  merit  of  such  writers  as  Polybius  and  Tacitus,  and 
to  discern  some  glimpses  of  the  truth  through  the  fabu- 
lous prodigies  with  which  the  eloquence  of  Livy  has 
adorned  the  early  annals  of  his  country.  The  charac- 
ter of  the  too  long  calumniated  Gracchi  receives  a  new 
illustration  from  the  interesting  researches  of  Mr.  Nie- 
buhr,  into  the  nature  of  the  Agrarian  laws.  The  history 
of  the  Roman  civil  law,  so  successfully  cultivated  in  Ger- 
many, and  so  much  slighted  in  England,  (whose  judges 
and  chancellors  for  a  century  past  have  been  borrowing 
from  that  admirable  code  without,  hardly  ever,  conde- 
scending to  acknowledge  the  debt,)  cannot  much  longer 
be  neglected  by  the  more  liberal  minded  jurists  and  scho- 
lars of  this  country.  Their  curiosity  must  be  excited  to 
trace  the  progress  of  a  system  which  has  infused  itself 
so  deeply  into  both  the  municipal  and  international  law 
of  modern  Europe,  and  by  which  the  Eternal  City,  long 
after  her  arts  and  arms  have  ceased  to  sway  the  rod 
of  empire,  continues  silently  and  peacefully  to  rule  the 
greatest  portion  of  the  civilized  world.  The  proud  boast 
of  Virgil  might  be  applied  in  a  larger  and  more  benefi- 
cent sense  than  he  intended  it  : 

Tu  regere  imperio  Populos,  Romane,  memento  : 
***** 

Page  30— line  1. 

(2)  This  column  is  supposed  to  have  belonged  to  a 
temple  of  Jupiter  Custos.  It  is  of  Grecian  marble,  of  the 
Corinthian  order,  and  64  palms  high.    Vasi,ltin.  Tom. 


61 

1,  p.  110.  "Une  colonne,  debris  d'un  temple  de  Jupi- 
ter Gardien,  place',  dit-on,  non  loin  de  l'abime  ou  s'est 
preripite  Curtius."  De  Stael,  Corinne,  torn.  1,  liv.  2, 
chap.  4. 

Page  30 — line  5. 

(3)  The  story  of  Rienzi  is  well  told  by  Gibbon,  (Decline 
and  Fall,  c.  lxx.,)  and  still  better  by  Sismondi,  i^Histoire 
ties  Republiques  Italiennes,  torn.  5,  chap.  370  Madame 
de  Stael,  speaking  of  the  tomb  of  Hadrian,  now  castle  of 
St.  Angelo,  condenses  the  history  of  this  and  the  other 
Italian  patriots  of  the  middle  ages,  in  one  of  the  finest 
touches  of  her  epigrammatic  pen,  which«  would  be  wor- 
thy of  the  sententious  brevity  of  Tacitus.  a  Cresen- 
"  tius,  Arnault  de  Brescia,  Nicholas  Rienzi,  ces  amis 
"  de  la  liberie'  Romaine,  qui  out  pris  si  souvent  les  sou- 
a  venirs  pour  des  esperances,  se  sont  defendus  long- 
"  temps  dans  le  tombeau  d'un  Empereur."  (Corinne, 
torn.  1,  p.  125.)  We  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Hobhouse  for 
the  discovery  of  some  very  interesting  documents  rela- 
ting to  this  illustrious  friend  of  Petrarch,  which  were  first 
published  in  the  Illustrations  of  the  Fourth  Canto  of 
Childe  Harold,  Appendix,  No.  n. 

Page  30 — line  12. 

(4)  "  Nullum  sine  nomine  saium."  In  a  very  beau- 
tiful imitation  of  Goethe's  celebrated  Kennst  du  das 
Land,  our  countryman,  Mr.  E.  C.  Pinckney,  has  the 
following  lines : 

"  There  Art  too  shows,  when  Nature's  beauty  palls, 
"Her  sculptur  d  marbles  and  her  pictured  wall? 


62 


"  And  there  are  forms  in  which  they  both  conspire, 

u  To  whisper  themes  that  know  not  how  to  tire  ; 

"  The  speaking  ruins  in  that  gentle  clime 

"  Have  but  been  hallowed  by  the  hand  of  Time  ; 

"  And  each  can  mutely  prompt  some  thought  of  flame — 

"  The  meanest  stone  is  not  without  a  name. 

Page  49 — line  9. 
(5)  Zosimus  relates  that  in  the  invasion  of  Greece  by 
Alaric,  A.  D.  396,  the  Walls  of  Athens  were  protected 
from  his  fury  by  the  Goddess  Minerva,  with  her  formida- 
ble jEgis,  and  by  the  angry  phantom  of  Achilles.  Gib- 
bon, Decline  and  Fall,  c.  30. 

Where  was  thine  iEgis,  Pallas,  that  appall'd 
Stern  Alaric  and  Havoc  on  their  way  ? 
Where  Peleus'  son  ?  whom  hell  in  vaiu  enthrall'd 
His  shade  from  Hades  upon  that  dread  day 
Bursting  to  light  in  terrible  array  ! 

Byron,  Childe  Harold,  Canto  2,  Stanxa  xiv. 


4 

I 


